Current Events April
This month I break way from the potentially disastrous drama unfolding in Iran to turn your attention briefly to human side of the struggle to prevent nuclear catastrophe.
Unfortunately, the inspiration for this sudden change of tone is the need to mourn the loss a major figure in this struggle. On April 2, suddenly and much too soon, we lost a popular and effective leader. What follows is taken from information provided by Collin Archer, secretary-general of the International Peace Bureau.
Janet Bloomfield (born Janet Hood in Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, England in 1953) was a peace and disarmament campaigner who was chair of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND), the largest peace and disarmament organisation in Europe, from 1993 - 1996. During this time she developed CND’s campaign around the 1995 Review and Extension Conference of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which included the production of the highly influential “Blueprint for a Nuclear Weapon Free World.” Active in the anti-nuclear movement since 1981, she was a consultant (Vice-President 1994 -1997) to the Geneva-based International Peace Bureau, a Nobel Peace Prize-winning network of non-aligned peace organisations in 44 countries, which nominated Joseph Rotblat for the 1995 Nobel Peace Prize. She was a member of the Global Council of Abolition 2000, the primary global network of disarmament NGOs. She was the convenor of the Abolition Now! campaign.
Bloomfield organised the successful campaign to stop arms trade shows being held at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham in 1991. She organised and led the Atomic Mirror Pilgrimage 1996 around nuclear and sacred sites of England, Scotland and Wales. This journey was filmed and made into a documentary called “Sacred Fire”.
After 1997 Bloomfield worked as a freelance consultant and writer on nuclear and related issues. She worked with The Body Shop, Charter 88, Campaign Against the Arms Trade, the Forum for UN Renewal and the Nuclear Free Local Authorities UK. She was currently a senior consultant on UK Security Policy to the Oxford Research Group (ORG), and project leader for ORG’s dialogue with decision makers skills training programme.
Her main work at the time of her death was as British Coordinator for the Atomic Mirror. The purpose of the Atomic Mirror is to create a nuclear-free world, using the sacred and creative arts to transform our understanding of human security from a reliance on nuclear weapons to a sustainable relationship with all life. The Atomic Mirror works with activists, artists, and indigenous peoples from nuclear sites, developing initiatives and joint activities to reveal the secrets of the Nuclear Age, inspire people to take action, and abolish nuclear weapons and power. Past and current projects include: Atomic Mirror Pilgrimages to sacred and nuclear sites in the US, Japan, and Britain; performances on nuclear issues in over 10 cities around the world; the production of films and educational videos such as the ten-minute video “And the Fence Came Tumbling Down” about the transformation of Greenham Common; an ongoing fund to bring nuclear downwinders to testify at international events, such as NPT Prepcoms, Abolition 2000 meetings, International Court of Justice hearings, Hague Appeal for Peace; local, national, and international advocacy for nuclear abolition, including the production of the annual Abolition 2000 Report Card every year since 1996.The Atomic Mirror is a founding member of Abolition 2000. It has official NGO status with the UN Department of Public Information. The Atomic Mirror is a founding member of the Weapons of Mass Destruction Awareness Programme.
Bloomfield was also a Charter 88 signatory and a Fellow of the British-American Project. She joined the Green Party in 1996. She was a member of Thaxted Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) and a member of the Peace Campaigning and Networking Group of the Quaker Peace and Social Witness.
I include this lengthy bio in part to show what one devoted nuclear peace campaigner can do. What this bio fails to convey is Janet’s warmth, humor, and ability to make the people around her feel that they are in the right place doing something important. She will be terribly missed, and she is not the only one.
Two years ago we lost Satomi Oba, a tireless, devoted campaigner against nuclear weapons and nuclear power. A resident of Hiroshima, she was a respected expert in her field, but it was her mastery of English that allowed her to play such a central role, representing Hiroshima at international events, then translating films, books, pamphlets, and even e-mails into Japanese.
Speaking of Hiroshima, the ubiquitous and indomitable Michiko Yamaoka has suffered a stroke. Michiko is a hibakusha who has for nearly a half-century recounted her A-bomb experience to audiences in Hiroshima and around the world. At one point, she was reliving the horror of that day an average 33 times each month. She is determined is to recover and resume her A-bomb testimonies, but her illness is a high-profile reminder that we are losing our A-bomb witnesses. The largest group of kataribe (A-bomb survivors who tell their stories) disbanded two years ago due to a lack of healthy members.
In Canada we have cause to celebrate. Canada’s best-known hibakusha, Setsuko Thurlow, has been awarded the Order of Canada for her persistent witness and advocacy of non-nuclear peace in both Japan and Canada. I received this news from David Swain, who has been the driving force behind this website. He was also translator of the classic Hiroshima and Nagasaki, still the definitive work on the atomic bombings. David remains healthy and active. He is studying and teaching now about the underground railroad and the horrors of slavery, but he has turned this website and his the tremendous collection of A-bomb materials over to the “young folk,” who are just turning 60. I also heard from David and that Setsuko has been forced to dramatically curtail her activities because problems with her legs make it difficult to get around.
In Hiroshima the sense of urgency is palpable. The average age of those who experienced the atomic bombing is now 75. Very few are still healthy enough to continue their political activities. Around the world, the generation that experienced World War II is moving off the stage. They are being replaced by leaders with no personal understanding of the horrors of war and nuclear weapons. George Santayana pointed out that, “Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it.” And we are forgetting.
As I have pointed out many times in this column, the human family is in the process of making a critical decision. Will we eliminate nuclear weapons? Or will we let them spread, which means let them be used? As the World War II generation gives way to the baby boomers, personal memories of war are vanishing. When the baby boomers, already turning 60, are replaced, even second hand knowledge will be lost. Ted Turner, who has certainly invested as much as anyone in the cause of peace (the UN) and reducing the nuclear threat, believes the human race is too short-sighted and unimaginative to act with commitment on either nuclear weapons or climate change until we experience a truly terrifying disaster.
On the other hand, Tadatoshi Akiba was just re-elected to serve another four years as mayor of Hiroshima. Six months ago, many thought he wouldn’t run again, and would lose if he did. Akiba is not a natural politician. He is a mathematics professor, a peace activist. He went to Tokyo University, then got his Ph.D. in math at MIT. He spent twenty years studying, then teaching in US. The fact that he is mayor of the tenth largest a city in Japan is something of a miracle. He is undoubtedly the most bilingual, cosmopolitan mayor any city in Japan has ever had, and he is a populist who cares deeply about peace.
Because his first loyalty is to people not corporations or political bosses (from whom he takes no money), and because he believes clean rivers are more important then a factory’s right to pollute, he has been the target of an intensive campaign by the right-wing, the gangsters, and much of the business community. As a left-leaning populist, he was targeted for defeat by the Liberal Democratic Party and the ruling coalition in Tokyo. This same of coalition knocked off a populist governor in Nagano Prefecture last year, and many assumed they would have no trouble unseating the troublesome Akiba.
He didn’t decide to run until the last minute, but on April 8, which happens to be both Easter and the Buddha’s birthday, Akiba won a four-man race with 47% of the vote. His victory means that Hiroshima will continue to lead Mayors for Peace (now with 1600 city members in 120 countries) and use its moral authority to intensify the struggle against nuclear weapons. Akiba won by telling the people of Hiroshima to be proud of their city, to proud of their recovery, their many accomplishments, and their mission. Mayor Akiba and the people of Hiroshima intend to shift their own city, Japan and the world from a culture of war to a culture of peace. Let’s all hope and pray that they succeed.